Rye High School’s varsity baseball games have been a showcase for success in recent weeks.
At one point, the Garnet boys won five of six games while out-scoring their opponents 37 to eight, rocketing them from seventh to second place among the region’s Section 1 Class A-sized schools. The highlight of that stretch: a two-game sweep over archrival Harrison, who had come into the series as one of the top three teams among the regions in Class AA.
It was quite the turnaround for the Garnets, who had hit a snag in mid-April, closing out the third week of that month with a record of five wins and four losses – after losing back-to-back games for the first time this season.
“We’ve have just been getting back to playing fundamentally sound baseball,” Coach Mike Bruno said following the recent run. “We been staying focused throughout our games and our practices, and our pitchers have been throwing strikes, which is always the first step.”
breaks for home.
The Garnets began their climb with back-to-back wins against Pelham, which over the two-game series managed only three hits against three Rye pitchers: seniors Shephard Griffiths and Charlie Margiloff, and junior Jack Sheridan. Other highlights included both a three-hit performance from sophomore Nolan Hutson and two RBIs from senior captain Tommy Broderick in the April 24 game, followed by five no-hit innings of pitching from Margiloff in the second game two days later.
The following week, Rye beat Ardsley High 8-2 despite trailing 2-1 after the first two innings. A four-run third inning gave Rye the lead, which was more than enough for sophomore pitcher Lucas London, who pitched five-and-a-third scoreless innings out of the bullpen to secure his first varsity win.
After a gritty, 2-1 loss to Hendrick Hudson on May 1, the Garnets had a two-game series against Harrison — and played what was arguably their best baseball of the season. In their two games against the Huskies, who started the series with a 10-5 record, the Garnets allowed just one run on three hits and scored 13 runs of their own in a sweep of their nextdoor rival.
The Garnets fired on all cylinders in the first game, which was called after six innings as a 10-0 victory under a “mercy rule” designed to prevent one team from running up the score. London, the sophomore pitcher, had a game to remember on both sides of the ball, pitching a complete-game shutout and, at the plate, driving in two runs on a single in the sixth inning. The top three hitters in Rye’s lineup — sophomore Nolan Hudson, and seniors Dillion Schmidt and Tommy Broderick — crossed home plate a combined eight times during the win, and sophomore Jackson Pineault recorded his first varsity multi-hit game.
The second game of the series was the ninth annual Andrew Gurgitano Memorial, which honors a former Harrison Husky who died tragically of a stroke at age 16. As a leader of the baseball team and a scholar in the classroom, he is remembered each year with awards given to a pair of athletes, one from Harrison and one from RHS, who exemplify sportsmanship on and off the field.
Fittingly, the two honorees, Rye senior Shepherd Griffiths and Harrison’s Marco Citro, faced each other in a pitcher’s duel that pitted two of the top arms among the region’s Section 1 schools. The pair threw more than 100 pitches each and, combined, struck out 18 batters in a battle that went to extra innings after seven frames, tied 1-1.
Rye’s Tommy Broderick was hit by a pitch to start the eighth, then beat the throw to second as Margiloff hit a ground ball to third and joined him on the bases. This set up a wild sequence of events on a bunt from the next batter – Tommy’s brother, Jack Broderick. Multiple throwing errors by Harrison allowed both Tommy Broderick and Margiloff to score, propelling the Garnets to a 3-1 victory when Harrison failed to score in the bottom of the eighth.
“We’ve been making teams earn everything they get and, with a little baseball luck here and there, we have been able to put together these key wins,” Bruno said of his players.
The team, which still hopes to take its league title for a second year in a row, has three games still ahead of it: Pearl River on the road on May 10, at East Fishkill on May 11, and back home against John Jay High on May 13 to finish the regular season.